Offer Letters, Stipends and Systems for Massive Balloon Installs
Handshake agreements feel fine... right up until someone asks what time they were supposed to arrive or how much you said you’d pay them. When Ashley of The Balloon Lab is hiring balloon artists for large installs, she has systems for avoiding that exact problem.
Send an Offer Letter, Not a DM
Every artist Ashley hired got an offer letter. They were all identical except for the terms, and each one laid out:
- The dates she needed them
- A proposed schedule, including an arrival day that wasn’t meant to be a work day
- A flat rate for the overnight install plus an hourly rate for work outside that window
- A travel stipend
She gave a deadline to accept by email. Framing it as a full package let people weigh the pay alongside the intangibles, like the experience and the exposure from a social media pro tagging every business all night.
Use a Travel Stipend
Rather than booking the artists' flights herself, Ashley gave a set stipend. Travelers could use points or choose a pricier direct flight if that mattered to them, and her budget stayed predictable. I’ve watched travel costs double from one year to the next on my own big build, so I absolutely loved this tip.
She covered lodging separately, and everyone had a real bed, not a bunk. She also reimbursed rental cars by receipt and fed the team most meals. Her thinking was simple: if I were doing this, what would I appreciate?
Give Inventory a Home and a Manager
For the month leading up to bid day, Ashley rented a 5,000 square foot space to hold and prep all the inventory. And every job she gets (bid day or not) already includes an inventory pull sheet, a prep sheet and tags, with the goal that someone brand new could walk in and know exactly what to pull.
With four bid day houses of balloons in one warehouse, a few things got scattered. Next year’s fixes include:
- A dedicated warehouse manager
- Garlands fully finished before they’re loaded
- A truck and driver for each house
- House-specific equipment lists plus a supply staging area on site
Know Where Every Dollar Goes
Ashley uses the Profit First method and treated bid day exactly like her regular jobs. Half of her income goes to operating expenses, and half of that was labor. If she ever has to pull from her own pay to cover something, it’s labor.
She also reinvests. In the middle of all this, she bought marquees, because big jobs are what move the business forward.
Listen to the full episode here!
